2007-10-04 08:22:07 · 30 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Immortal! Life is both too good, and too brief, to end in the oblivion of death.
Most of the objections I hear to immortality don't make much sense, or are a matter of opinion or personal belief. Some of the more common ones:
"If I live forever, I won't get to heaven." Well perhaps it may take a few millenia for some people to gain enough life experience, watching religions grow, evolve and fade away, to realize that yeah, the afterlife really is just a human invention. Heaven & hell are what we choose to make of this life, now.
"If I live forever, I'll have to forever be watching loved ones die." Well yeah, but we lose loved ones now, and we get over it. Live long enough and you realize that the real value in a relationship or friendship is in the time spent together. Knowing that your time with someone is finite should cause you to cherish that time all the more, not regret it because it will someday end.
"If I live forever, I'll just keep getting older until I'm like a bed-ridden Yoda." Well, not really. The biological body does have its limits, but that's why you would migrate into a non-biological body, that isn't so fragile, can be easily repaired and upgraded, can't be sickened by disease (since it's artificial), doesn't age (again, since it's artificial), etc.
"Unless I'm the only immortal, the world would soon be wall-to-wall with people." The technology needed for immortality is no simple matter. But by the time that happens, space travel will be trivial (especially if you don't need food, life support, etc. [remember, you have an artificial body now!]) and I suspect that many of us will choose to venture out into the vast unknowns of the cosmos.
"Immortal life would get boring after a while." Only if you're not creative enough to find something to do with your time. Even for an immortal there will always be new books to read, new people to meet and form relationships with, new places to visit, new experiences to have. And quite frankly, if there's ever a time when you've "done it all," it will have been soooo long that doing it all over again will seem like a new experience.
I want to do it all, see it all, experience it all, understand it all. There are dozens of professions I'd like to try out for a few decades or centuries before moving on to the next one. I will always thirst for new knowledge and new insights and wisdom. I want to see civilizations rise and fall and rise again. I want to watch and participate as the human race evolves into the next species (species being singular or plural!).
70-80 years, or even a trillion years, is the blink of an eye in the cosmic scheme of things. I want to live to see it all. And who knows? Some of us just may succeed.
2007-10-04 12:19:07 · answer #1 · answered by R[̲̅ə̲̅٨̲̅٥̲̅٦̲̅]ution 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, being mortal is not my choice, but it's already determined to be my fate by nature.
However, i wouldnt choose to be immortal. Do you really think you would want to live forever (well not forever) and see so many friends die, all of your family die, the world changing so much (and probably not in a good way), possible wars, diseases, possible natural disasters? And I'm assuming you would be around till the end of the world ( if we have not yet moved to other planets in a different, or younger solar system). Our sun is eventually going to die out and explode (supernova). If we have not moved to a different solar system, you will eventually die.
I would choose to live alot longer than the average life expectancy. I would want to live to be about 150 to 200 years old maybe.
2007-10-04 08:29:11 · answer #2 · answered by Mike G 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Immortality with the vitality of prime adulthood. It would be a hardship to watch those you know die as you pass through the ages. But I have alway thought that the 80 years we have just isn't enough.
2007-10-04 08:30:51 · answer #3 · answered by James H 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends:
If everyone else was immortal I would wish to be immortal.
If everyone else was mortal I would wish to be mortal.
It cannot be easy nor pleasurable being the odd one out.
2007-10-04 08:25:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mortal - I believe the immortals envy the mortal more than we realise.
2007-10-04 12:02:30 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I would want to be immortal but only for a short while.
2007-10-04 08:24:05 · answer #6 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Immortality would be great if you got eternal youth to go with it, but living maybe for a few centuries or even a few Millenia would do fine with me.
2007-10-04 08:34:32 · answer #7 · answered by anon4112 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends - do I get to choose other things, like health and financial status, etc.?
I mean, who would want to be immortal, but in a coma, or eternally without money, etc.?
2007-10-04 08:24:59 · answer #8 · answered by Larry V 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'd prefer being mortal. Life, even a vital youthful life, can begin to pall.
2007-10-04 08:33:47 · answer #9 · answered by LK 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mortal - no way would I want to live forever as a human - however, eternity in Heaven is another story.
2007-10-04 08:24:08 · answer #10 · answered by Lori E 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋